Quesada Says Marvel Has Rights to Namor Again

Marvel has welcomed home another prodigal son, so to speak. Just a year after it regained rights to use Spider-Man in its ensemble films, Marvel chief creative officer, Joe Quesada, has stated that they once again have the rights to Namor, the Sub-Mariner.

By the way, mariner is pronounced with a short i, like the baseball team, or Namor’s namesake poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Apparently, it bugs Quesada to hear it mispronounced, understandably.

When Marvel licensed many of its characters in the 1990s to various studios, one of those properties included the Atlantean/human mutant, Namor, who was licensed to Universal Studios. In 2013, Quesada mistakenly announced that Marvel had regained the rights to Namor, but Marvel president, Kevin Feige, refuted that claim just after. The topic again came up a year later with Feige confirming rights had reverted, but with a lot of complications. Now, two years, later Quesada has stated to Kevin Smith that Marvel does indeed have Namor back via Smith’s podcast, Fat Man on Batman.

So now what? Are we getting ready for a Namor movie announcement? Not necessarily. While such a film would no doubt do well, as the character is one of Marvel’s oldest with a pretty intriguing history (he’s considered the first real anti-hero in the comic world), there are no plans in the cards–just yet.

When Smith pressed the issue, Quesada gave the standard, “I cannot confirm or deny, sir.”

Lord knows the MCU has its hands full with the characters that do have films in development. There are nine films announced until 2019, but Feige claimed in 2014 that there are actually production plans for many more projects until 2028. Not to mention, until last year, Spider-Man wasn’t at all on the table, but once that dream became a reality, Marvel happily rearranged its schedule. They have also knocked off The Inhumans indefinitely to make way for sequels like Ant-Man and the Wasp after the somewhat unexpected hugely positive reception of Ant-Man in 2015.

It would also make sense to have an answer to DC’s upcoming Aquaman starring Jason Momoa. Fans are already largely naming Zachary Quinto as an ideal Namor. So then is a Namor movie appearance even possible? Definitely. Do we think it’ll happen? Likely, but again, that’s just speculation.

Denise Heard-Bashur

Managing editor for GeekFeed.com living in the desolation of the west Texas desert. Proud mom, photo editor by day, former film major, MCU maven. Founder of the Free Snowpiercer & Free Loki campaigns. Also hung up on LOTR, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Outlander, Friends, and cinema in general. Good, bad...it's all awesome. I'm a firm believer that if you haven't read the book yet, see the movie first. Saves on tons of disappointment and spoilers. SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!